Twenty nine motorists were facing drunken driving charges Monday following their arrests at two separate sobriety checkpoints in downtown San Diego over the weekend, police announced Monday morning.

The checkpoints were held from 11 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday in the 1500 block of First Avenue and in the 1400 block of G Street, according to San Diego police Officer Mark McCullough.

A total of 949 motorists were screened by officers as they passed through the First Avenue checkpoint and of those, 11 were arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, he said. On G Street, 798 motorists were screened and 18 of them were arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, according to McCullough.

"The message is simple, drive sober or get pulled over," he said. "Drinking alcohol and driving do not mix. If you plan to consume alcohol, you should also plan not to get behind the wheel of a vehicle or ride a motorcycle."

The UT website has written articles about some of the DUI checkpoints, sometimes including how many people were cited for not having a license, expired registration, no insurance, and so forth.

While these are indeed "crimes", the 4th amendment is supposed to protect us from UNREASONABLE searches and seizures. In the case of police, probable cause is supposed to be established in order to make the search reasonable. It is why DUI checkpoints were not allowed until an exemption to the 4th amendment was made, although it was supposed to be specifically for DUI activity.

Checkpoints are now used as a tool to allow unreasonable searches to be conducted in the process of the constitutionally exempted "reasonable" search. If this behavior was acceptable, they wouldn't need to specify them as DUI checkpoints.